Chani Saikia wins silver for Assam at national arm-wrestling meet

Chani Saikia’s silver in the men’s 78 kg left-hand category gave Assam another reason to measure its rise in national arm wrestling by more than gold medals alone. In Bengaluru, at the 6th BCAI National Arm-Wrestling Championship 2026, Saikia reached the final round of one of the sport’s core weight classes and added to a state haul that already pointed to real depth.

Saikia’s medal matters because it came in a division that demands more than raw strength. Left-hand arm wrestling at the national level is often decided by fine details, hand control, leverage and the ability to stay composed through a long, punishing bracket. In a double-elimination championship with no seeding before the draw, one early misstep can force a long climb back, and that makes a silver in a tightly contested class a serious achievement, not a consolation prize.

The result also ties the podium back to Golaghat district, where Saikia is the son of Rajen Saikia and Ruby Saikia of Rangamati Badhaniya village in Badulipar. Those details matter in Assam, where arm wrestling has increasingly been built on district-level talent and the sort of local support that turns a promising lifter into a national finalist. Saikia’s finish shows that the state is not waiting for one-off stars. It is producing athletes who can survive the pressure of a national bracket and keep advancing.

Assam’s performance in Bengaluru only sharpened that picture. Kasturi Sharma won two gold medals in the 70 kg category and was described as a three-time consecutive national champion after the event. Anup Rajkonwar also took gold and qualified for the World Championship in Japan. With an 88-member contingent at the meet, Assam did not arrive as a small presence chasing a single breakthrough. It arrived as one of the event’s deepest states, with athletes across classes capable of pushing into medal positions.

That broader spread of success is what gives Saikia’s silver extra weight. Assam is no longer being defined by isolated results. From Sharma’s double gold to Rajkonwar’s world qualification and Saikia’s podium finish, the state is building a pipeline that can produce champions, finalists and dependable medal winners in the same championship cycle. In a sport that has been part of India’s competitive landscape since the early 1970s, and one that even staged a world championship in Assam in 1997, Saikia’s silver fit into a larger and more convincing pattern: the state is not just present at the national level, it is starting to shape it.